Marcus had just started on the bottle of gin. He played a few games of minesweeper still trying to beat his roommate's unbeatable record. Andrew, his roommate, had played enough to actually memorize each board, so Marcus' attempts were destined to fail, especially once the effects of the gin kicked in. Giving up on the game, he logged into the school's network to check email. There was the usual joke forwarded by his mother but nothing else. Marcus' fiancée, Anne, had been gone for a week so far and hadn't emailed. He told himself he was sure she was busy with the wedding planning, though it was actually a relief not to have any mail to answer. They spoke every day for a bit by phone, but it is easy to hide any real thoughts when one is just relating the usual goings-on of a summer day, saying how much one misses the other and how neither can wait another moment for the big day.
The big day was actually still a couple months away. Marcus and Anne had just graduated a couple weeks ago. She decided immediately after that she needed to get away home to have her mother help with the wedding arrangements and "decompress" after the stressful final weeks of school. He stayed, keeping his room in the fraternity house for the summer and continuing to work his bartending job, so they'd actually have some money to pay for the wedding expenses which were piling up ever quicker.
A chat request came on his computer screen from the username awoods. > How are ya, sexxy?
Marcus chuckled to himself when he saw it pop up on his screen. Normally it was he who would be "fingering" awoods whenever he got onto the school network. "Finger" is a UNIX command one can use to see if another user is online. Marcus had been in several classes with Amy Woods as they had both been English Lit. majors. They had smoked some pot together the first week of their freshman year at Northwestern and had been acquaintances since.
While not beautiful, even by Northwestern's relatively lower standards compared to the state schools where Marcus would visit his friends, Amy had an unmistakable sexual quality and confidence that had always attracted Marcus to her. In the past couple years they had emailed more and more even while Marcus and Anne became more exclusive. Perhaps it was due to the fact that he was dating Anne that Marcus emailed Amy. While his fraternity brothers were good for saying what he wanted to hear based on his mood: "Fuck her" when he was pissed, and "Anne's awesome for you, man," when he wasn't. With Amy, he could ask questions about the way women think, complain about Anne's little annoyances, and despite their mutual flirtation, Marcus felt he could get objective advice from her.
There were those nights when he had had a bit to drink and suspected that Amy had too, when a chat like this evolved into something much hotter. Cybersex was something relatively new, but as an early adopter of technologies like Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Marcus was already quite familiar with, and quite fond of, meeting people online. Still, he had logged on tonight quite innocently and certainly didn't expect to see Amy online, having thought she had left for home by now.
< If I suspected you were around, I would have fingered you as soon as I got on. he responded.
> Damn, I'm sorry I missed a sound fingering!
< Hah! Well, the night is still young!
As soon as he had hit 'enter' Marcus felt his conscience tug. Shit, he shouldn't have opened the door like that. Anne had only been gone a week and he was already prowling like an alley cat. He blamed the gin -- that and the fact that Anne was always so suspecting of his interactions with other women. The couple times he even dropped Amy's name in conversation with her, she immediately responded with "God, that girl's a slut!" Marcus wondered what evidence she had.
She was especially distrustful of his true female friends. He had gone to high school with and suffered through the typical high school angst with a girl named Lauren. The friendship had been platonic and lasted throughout college, probably because it had remained platonic, Marcus thought. He had once caught Anne reading through a letter from Lauren he had left out on his desk. He had gone down the hall to the shower, leaving her in his bed and, having forgotten his shampoo, returned to find her hurriedly folding the letter back up claiming she just wanted to "see who it was from." The letter was completely innocuous of course, simply wishing him luck on his finals and actually inquiring how things were going with "the new love in his life".
Then there was Trisha, the bubbly young redhead he had taken "Math for Trees" with. That had been at the start of his senior year. Marcus had befriended the sophomore because he was initially attracted to her. Trisha had accepted his friendship but made it clear she was not interested in a relationship with anyone, especially a senior and gave no hint that the attraction was mutual. Still, he worked to maintain the friendship, arranging study sessions even when their one mutual class had ended and inviting her to rollerblade on the Lakefill. Mostly it was an effort to prove to Anne that he could have an attractive, completely platonic female friend, partly it was to prove the same thing to himself, and partly it was to raise unfounded jealousy in Anne and punish her for her distrust in him.
Out from under Anne's watchful eye, Marcus felt slightly liberated even as his face flushed with the acknowledgment of even this tiny indiscretion.
> Is it now? planning a wild romp with sweet Anne, or will it be a guy's night out?
< I don't know really. Anne's home. [He opened the door a crack wider] Roommate's back home and not sure who else is around the House here.
> Really? She's at home? That's interesting. What's she doing there?
< Her mom's helping her put together stuff for the wedding, I guess. Why's that interesting?
> Because I'm interested. :) How's the planning going?
< Ok, I guess. I'm working to pay for it. That's my part. Every time she asks for my opinion she ends up doing the exact opposite.
> How so?
As frustrating as the wedding planning could be to Marcus, it wasn't something he wanted to talk about. Not now.
< Um, just ... it's just frustrating a bit. What have you been up to?
> Finishing up a project here with a prof. Not sure if I'm going to renew my lease and stay or head home.
< Aren't you done? Are you looking for a job here or back home in ... where? Philly? I forget.
> Boston. I still have a couple more classes before I graduate.
< No wonder I didn't see you at graduation.
> Were you looking for me? *grin*
< Of course! So what are you up to tonight?
> Believe it or not, doing a bit of research. I'm doing this project on the religious use of hallucinogens and there are about a dozen books I want to get through.
< I'd think that research on hallucinogens could be much more interesting.
> HAH! It COULD be. Got any? ;)
< I wish!
> Well, if you don't end up fingering anyone else tonight or getting your hands on any hallucinogenic substances, you could always come by here and at least read up on them.
